It was a momentous day when my parents bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2. This was the first personal computer in our house, and indeed it would be in our house for a very long time. We called it the “Trash-80” because of the TRS-80 in its name.
It’s the cat’s fault.
I had every intention of sleeping on Saturday morning, but my annoying cat Felix walked into our bedroom in the middle of the night and meowed at me, repeatedly. Apparently his food dish was empty and he wasn’t happy.
The late 1970s and early 1980s were the golden age of computer magazines. There was Creative Computing, Popular Computing, Info World, Compute!, BYTE, and many more. These were the primary ways that people learned about new computers, new programs and technical details of the computers. You couldn’t look this stuff up on the Internet yet!
When I first touched a computer, it felt like the hand of God came down from the heavens and pointed at it. “This… this is what you will do,” boomed the LORD.
After the CP cornucopia of cargo trains, I went south to the CN main line to see some more trains. I decided to head to Nattress on the east side of the Assiniboine River.
Around Winnipeg, CN runs a lot more trains than CP does. I’d say you can see three times as many trains on CN west of the city. However, the ratio was a little more even on June 20, 2021.
Do you like trains? At night? Here’s a 2023 train calendar for you. Twelve months of trains at night, featuring available light photos of CN and CP trains across the prairie and in Ontario.
During our planning for my trip to Waterloo, Ontario, my son Nick suggested that we should try to catch the CN local running down the Elmira spur through town. It’s a really interesting operation. One highlight on the route is where it runs between two buildings in downtown Waterloo en route to Elmira.
I had high expectations for Trains of Newfoundland, the fourth book by Kenneth G. Pieroway on railways in Newfoundland. I’m happy to say that my expectations were met and exceeded. This beautiful 122 page book features a foreword by Robert J. Sandusky, a preface, a map and a condensed timeline, but the vast majority of … Read more
I crossed another item off my “to do list” – I visited Bayview Junction in Ontario. I listed three goals for 2022 in my Looking Back, Looking Forward post at the start of this year: As the classic Meatloaf song goes, “two out of three ain’t bad.” I rode the Canadian to Sioux Lookout earlier … Read more